A brief moment of leisure
by Izzu
Summary: Samurai Sentai Shinkenger. It was another off-day for the samurai-tachi as Ryunosuke and Takeru found themselves left with nothing to do.


az: Setting is like after 28. Or some episodes further...

Written as a secret santa gift for digital-blitz from LJ. Some inspiration borrowed from the cast's personal blogs; particularly, Shogo's.

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A brief moment of leisure

Written by Izzu alias honou-no-izumi

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"Ah... finally! I thought it never came! I've been waiting for another free off-days like this!"

Ryunosuke glanced towards Chiaki, who had been lying on the tatami mat and rolling about it happily. He made an almost amused face at him as he laughed.

"Why are you so excited about it? It's not like our off-days are that rare. We always had it like every few months—"

Chiaki flipped his body to a sitting position as he grinned at him.

"No-uh! That's where you're wrong! This time, we'll be spending our off-day DIFFERENTLY!" Chiaki said confidently, while nodding his head at him.

Ryunosuke appeared skeptic.

"What do you mean different?"

Chiaki gave him a look of disbelief.

"We'll spend our free times separately is what I mean. Seriously, if I have to spend every single off-days hanging out with you guys all the time, my life would be like... boring. There's something like private space... PRIVACY!"

Ryunosuke just shrugged at him.

"Calm down. Why are you getting angry at me for? It's not like I forced you about it or something..."

Chiaki gave him a cheeky grin.

"I'm just giving you a heads up about it. So if Jii asked what we're planning for the day off, you don't tell him about another group outing!"

Ryunosuke blinked at him. "Oh... alright. When was the day off anyway—?"

"It's today, you idiot! To—oh, figures you not noticing. You almost always have your own set of schedules for your own training. Just like Takeru over there—"

"What about me you're talking about—" Suddenly Takeru's voice came from behind them as both of them turned. Chiaki grinned.

"Ah. it's nothing—"

"Chiaki had been talking about how you always trained yourself regardless of off-days." said Ryunosuke as Chiaki elbowed him. Takeru whistled.

"Oh! Today's another off-day for you guys right?"

"Yeah!" Chiaki exclaimed enthusiastically. "It's been a while since I bought any new T-shirt. I'm going to the mall to grab some new clothes."

"Oh, shopping! I want to join too!" Kotoha suddenly exclaimed as she and Mako arrived at the hall. Chiaki waved his hands at her.

"You can't! I—"

"You what... Chiaki?" Mako spoke as Chiaki's face went red.

"Nee-san, I—I mean... it's not like I'm going somewhere special. And people who saw us might think we're dat—Nee-san! You probably wanted to go watch some movies, right? Kotoha, go with Nee-san. Shopping with me won't be so much fun..."

"Oh really?" Mako mused as Ryunosuke laughed.

"I guess Chiaki had really looked forward to go shopping for his new clothes by himself."

"So much that he was almost punctual for breakfast?" Takeru added, equally amused. Chiaki rolled his eyes at him as he turned towards Ryunosuke.

"So what are you plans to spend your day off today?"

"I don't—Chiaki!" Ryunosuke started chasing him as Chiaki started mouthing about boring old Ryunosuke...

xxx

Ryunosuke sighed. Takeru smiled at him as he thrust his shinai at him before Ryunosuke blocked the move.

"Don't tell me you actually wanted to go out as well today?"

Ryunosuke laughed as he swung his shinai at him before Takeru dodged his move and countered with his own attack.

"Not really. I did say the truth when I told the others that I have no plans set for today. Just that... with the three of them gone, this place feels quieter than usual."

Just as he said it, Jii's voice scolding some of the kuroko at the other side of the building was heard. Takeru grinned.

"Almost..." he said as Ryunosuke grinned as well.

"I had to agree to that. Before you guys came here... this place didn't feel any different to me. Now, whenever you guys went out... this place felt lonelier. Or so Jii said."

Ryunosuke cast an amused glance at him.

"Perhaps both of us could go out for an outing ourselves!"

Takeru glanced back at him as his eyes twinkled.

"You said you had no particular plans today!" he exclaimed as Ryunosuke grinned.

"I did. But I just remembered Hikoma-san said that you should go out more often."

Takeru looked at him suspiciously. "Oh really? So where do you think we should go?"

Ryunosuke appeared thoughtful before grinning at him.

"The amusement park? You did miss out on the outing last time..."

Takeru tried very hard to keep a straight face as he asked him back.

"Amusement park? Why the amusement park of all places?"

Still grinning, Ryunosuke shrugged.

"I guess these few days Hikoma-san had slipped out some stuff when chatting with me when I saw him at the archives. Mostly about some old stories..."

Takeru gasped aloud as his face gradually turned red.

"Jii... he told you WHAT?" he cried in horror as Ryunosuke laughed.

"Some stuffs... I guess he really wanted you to at least be more open to others, so he thought asking me about it might help. Hmm... I should tell him that we're going out later. Hikoma-san would surely be glad you're not going to be cooped in the mansion today..." Ryunosuke announced as he skipped towards the inner corridors to find Jii while Takeru chased after him in alarm...

xxx

Ryunosuke hummed happily to himself as he dragged Takeru around the park. He grinned as he ruffled Takeru's hair with his hand.

"Cheer up, Tono... don't be so glum. It's not like you don't want to be here..."

Takeru pouted.

"It's not fun to have you and Jii teasing me in full force. You two sounded and acted like you guys know each other far longer than I have!"

Ryunosuke grinned again.

"It's because we cared about you, Tono. Besides... it was nice to see you smile more everyday."

Takeru now struggled to keep his gloomy mood gloomy as that statement made his heart grew warm.

"I hate you two... I always find it hard to win an argument against both of you in these kinds of situation," he moped as Ryunosuke smiled.

"Enough moping, Tono... and let's go on some of the rides here—"

Takeru cringed as Ryunosuke dragged him towards the roller coaster ride. He looked at him nervously.

"Ryunosuke... seriously?" he asked as Ryunosuke shrugged.

"Relax... it wouldn't be much worse than when we piloted our Origami and ShinkenOh. You yourself had your own stunts going on when you piloted Shishi Origami around. Or DaiTenkuu—"

"That's more of your pilotin—anyway it's different. When we pilot our Origami, at least we had the controls. But this one..."

"Don't worry, everything's gonna be alright!" said Ryunosuke as he dragged Takeru towards the roller coaster ride...

xxx

They got on several more rides after that first roller coaster ride, most of them being the type of rides that Takeru never dared to try before and ones that Jii could not afford to accompany him with because of his age. Surprisingly, as Takeru later found; half of it weren't as bad as he had thought before. Still, it didn't prevent his knees to shake once a while after the adrenaline rush.

Ryunosuke smiled at him in amusement as both of them took a break at one of the outdoor food stalls at the park.

"See? It wasn't so bad... isn't it? I never thought I would see you being ever more happy as you are now. We really should do this more often..."

"Perhaps after the battle is over..." said Takeru, finally allowing himself to smile so freely. He glanced at the scenery around him. "My parents... used to take me to this amusement park once a while. It used to be my happiest memory and always had been the usual 'reward' my father allowed me to have whenever I do well in my martial arts and mojikara study."

He sighed. "After they were gone, Jii often took me here whenever I'm feeling down. It's been a while..."

Takeru went quiet after that as he was then deep in his thoughts. Ryunosuke sighed to himself as he looked around to finally have his sight settled to the nearby haunted house attraction. He shrugged again to himself.

"Tono... since when did you have this intense fear of ghosts?"

Takeru snapped out of his musing as he turned towards Ryunosuke, blinking his eyes in confusion. For some reason, it was either he hadn't thought about this before or he just buried the thought deep inside of him.

"Is it after Doukoku and the gedoushu annihilated the Shiba clan... Tono?"

Takeru's eyes widened at the statement before letting out a shrug.

"I'm not sure. My father... never took me to a haunted house or those local shrine festivals they have where there would be those courage walk thing. I wouldn't know if I am scared of it before... that."

Ryunosuke sighed. He could never imagine how it would feel like... having your whole family members being killed right before your eyes but it should be the same with everyone else that they should be protecting. He himself would not feel comfortable if he had to see the people around him being killed while he was unable to do anything to stop it. He would have had the images of the dead haunting him in his sleep, asking him why hadn't he do anything to save them. Perhaps it was the same for Tono.

He shrugged to himself before getting up from his chair.

"Tono... would you mind joining me to enter the haunted house?"

Takeru stared at Ryunosuke in shock as if he had just swallowed a carp whole without batting an eye.

"I... can't. Why would you... you know I can't!" Takeru cried in alarm as Ryunosuke gave him a warm smile.

"I'm not letting you go alone. We'll go in together. If you get scared later... you can always hold my hand. I won't laugh at you about it."

Takeru gradually calmed down as he continued staring at Ryunosuke.

"Really? You'd do that?"

Ryunosuke laughed at him as if Takeru had just made a silly joke.

"Of course. You'll need to get over it one day after all. Who knows the enemy might use this to harm you if they ever found out about this."

Takeru bit his lips as Ryunosuke shrugged to ease the tension.

"Besides, I might be even more scared than you later. If that happens, at least you'd have someone else to run away with you in fear." said Ryunosuke again as both of them grinned at each other. Ryunosuke smiled to himself as Takeru seemed less distressed now. He stood to join him as he shrugged.

"Very well. Promise to never leave me alone in there?" Takeru asked as Ryunosuke nodded to him. Takeru smiled as both of them walked towards the haunted house attraction. But before they could get in, both of their shodophones were ringing.

"Ryunosuke here..." said Ryunosuke as he glanced towards Takeru.

"Will head there." said Takeru said as both of them ended their calls. It was Genta on Ryunosuke's phone and Jii on Takeru's as both shrugged to each other.

"I guess we have to continue this on our next outing."

"Definitely... my lord." said Ryunosuke as both of them dashed towards the next location where an ayakashi attacked.

xxx

Hours later, everyone gathered around Genta's sushi cart as he parked it at the small field near the mansion for the night.

"Aah, I only managed to get two sets of t-shirts today. Lucky I managed to get one of the Kuroko-chan to take my stuff home before that."

Mako grinned at him before shrugging. "Thankfully we hadn't chose that other movie that I wanted to watch, ne... Kotoha?"

Kotoha just smiled as Chiaki turned towards Takeru and Ryunosuke.

"You guys probably didn't have any problem, did you? You guys practically hovering around the mansion anyway..."

"Eh?" Genta exclaimed. "Then why Jii-chan asked me to call Ryunosuke about the gedoushu if they were at the mansion? Jii-chan also said he had to go calling Take-chan too..."

Mako's eyes widened.

"So you guys did went out?" she asked as Genta wailed at them.

"Why you two never asked me if I can join you guys?"

Ryunosuke grinned at him.

"It was nothing. We only took a walk around the mansion."

Chiaki stared at him in disbelief.

"Just a walk around the mansion? Is that even FUN?"

Takeru chuckled over himself.

"Trust me... it was fun. I had a great time while at it."

Chiaki looked at them in horror.

"I can't believe you two!" he exclaimed as Takeru and Ryunosuke chuckled over their little white lie. Better off keeping it just between themselves. It was after all... a very personal memory.

"Ah... hey!" Ryunosuke suddenly cried out as Ryu origami forced itself to get out of Ryunosuke's breast pocket before it bit his fingers.

Takeru grinned as he let Shishi origami out to play with the other origami.

"I guess, even _they_ wanted some time off on their own..."

Ebi origami started to blow some bubbles as Ika origami swam around before clouding the aquarium water with its ink. Not long after, the rest of origami joined in as the samurai-tachi continued chatting amongst themselves into the night.


End file.
